E36 front sway bar with e46 arms

[Joey van't Wout]

First post!

I am building a budget e36 drift car. 318is m44 coupe. Recently installed e46 control arms for some more lock. Come to find out that the tires hit the sway bar and the frame rails. So I deleted the sway bar and took a hammer to the frame rails. Everything clears now.

My question is, is it possible to not run a front sway bar or is there an alternative sway bar from some other car I could fit up? Maybe get some extra stiff springs to compensate? I'd be interested to hear what other people are running on their cars! I'd like to know before I get to my next event and finding out it was a bad decision to delete the front sway bar and having to deal with it the whole day.

 

[Andy318ti]

What coilovers do you have?
I don't run one and I don't really notice it but I have bc's with 8 or 10kg front springs that compensate nicely.
Can see in pictures that the car leans a bit more on the front than it used too with the arb

 

[Joey van't Wout]

I'm running some secondhand junk NJT adjustable coils. Front right makes a weird clunking noise and I can't get rid of it no matter what I do. Also when setting them to the exact same height that side sits lower. Should really replace them but as i said this is a budget car. Don't know what kind of springs they come with but I'll keep my eye out for an upgrade.

Makes me feel less worried tho knowing that other people run no arb so I think I'll just send it next event. Thanks for the reply!

 

[WillRoyy]

I had the same clunking issue with my eBay coilovers. Turned out to be where the top hat on the strut sat against the top mount ball joint, it was rubbing and causing the ball joint to lock so the spring would rotate on the top hats and make a horrible clunking noise.
There was a spacer missing between the top hat and top mount ball joint. Check to see if it's the same issue.

 

[Joey van't Wout]

I had the same clunking issue with my eBay coilovers. Turned out to be where the top hat on the strut sat against the top mount ball joint, it was rubbing and causing the ball joint to lock so the spring would rotate on the top hats and make a horrible clunking noise.
There was a spacer missing between the top hat and top mount ball joint. Check to see if it's the same issue.

That sounds exactly like my problem. I will have to check that out thanks man. What did you do to resolve this issue?

 

[WillRoyy]

If you look at some cheap top mounts on eBay, they come with an insert which is what was missing on mine, I luckily had another set of scrap top mounts I stole the insert from. I'm sure you can probably use some washers to space the top hat from the top mount so nothing rubs and that should sort the issue.